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537 million public transport journeys were made in 2015/16 (1)

National Statistics released today by Transport Scotland show that of public transport journeys 76 per cent were made by bus; 17 per cent by rail; 5 per cent by air and 2 per cent by ferry.

In addition to public transport journeys the publication also shows that in Scotland there were:

9 million motor vehicles licensed in Scotland by the end of 2015 and 268,000 new vehicle registrations in 2015. Eighty three per cent of all vehicles licensed were cars.

There were 45.4 billion vehicle kilometres travelled on Scotland’s roads in 2015, a slight increase on the previous year.

Car traffic is estimated to have increased slightly over the year to 34.7 billion vehicle kilometres and pedal cycle traffic is estimated to have decreased by 7 per cent to 342 million vehicle kilometres in 2015.

There were 93.2 million passenger journeys on ScotRail services in 2015/16, an increase of 0.5 per cent since 2014/15.

There were 25.5 million air passengers at Scottish airports in 2015, an increase of 6 per cent in the last year.

There were 9.5 million passengers on ferry services; 7.8 million passengers were on ferry routes within Scotland in 2015. Ferry passenger numbers have seen slight decreases over the year.

Over the past five years air and rail passengers, car traffic and cycle traffic have increased but, bus and ferry passengers have seen decreases.

These figures were published in the publication Scottish Transport Statistics. This compendium publication provides a comprehensive statistical picture of transport activity in Scotland, bringing together a wide range of transport related statistics that have been published throughout the last year by a number of organisations including Transport Scotland and the Department for Transport.

Topics covered include road transport and the road network, bus, rail, air, finance, international comparisons and environment and emissions.

The figures released today were produced by independent statistical staff free from any political interference, in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.